3 amazing critters from Manado/Lembeh Strait

[Wyatt]

Need Help on ID here... The following critters were photographed by me on a recent dive trip to Manado/Lembeh Strait in North Sulawesi.

This Nudibranch looked like a Nembrothid, It was found at a depth of about 11m amongst coral rubble and black volcanic sand at a site called Aer Perang at Lembeh Strait. Size was about 10 to 20 mm.

This exremely small species of pygmy seahorse was about 5 -8 mm the most. Found among tunicates and hydroids at Tanjung pisok, Mando Bay at a depth of about 20m.

This is what looked like a species of spider crab found during a night dive at Black rock, Manado bay. About 50 mm at a depth of 15 m.

Any help on the ID is appreciated... more pictures/videos and trip report can be found on my diveblog at http://dragondiver2005.blogspot.com (feel free to comment!)

Thanks
Cheers

Wyatt

 

[LeslieH]

The first one is a juvenile of Nembrotha purpureolineata. The pygmy is a recently discovered species that's still undescribed as far as I know. The third image doesn't show.

 

[LeslieH]

Great site Wyatt - good photos & enjoyable commentary. I enjoyed enjoyed browsing some of the links as well. The one thing I didn't like was the music which quickly became annoying, sorry!
The spider crab is a species of Oncinopus. I've seen it labelled as both Oncinopus sp. (which probably means it's undescribed) and O. japonicus.

 

[Wyatt]

Thank you Leslie for your kind and constructive comments... i've removed the annoying music...he heh... more posts to come... Thanks for the IDs... i've had a hard time finding reference to the spider crab ...u've pointed me to the right direction... as for the ID of the Nembrothid, i'm still skeptical about it being Nembrotha purpureolineata... the orange dorsal colouration, the thick black longitudinal lines and orange red rhinophores and gills does point it to N. purpureolineata but Expert Ophistobranch researcher Neville Coleman positively identified my animal as Nembrotha megalocera...so now i'm confused... according to records, the Big-horned Nembrotha is mostly found in the Red sea....but Neville Coleman said they reside in Indonesian waters as well....

 

[LeslieH]

Take a look at some of the images of Nembrotha purpureolineata on the Sea Slug Forum and you'll see several animals which look just like yours which were identified by Bill Rudman. With all due respect to Neville my preference is to follow Bill if they disagree. http://www.seaslugforum.net/showall.cfm?base=nembpurp

There's not much information to be found on the Oncinopus. I got the species id (on a different image but the shape & coloring is quite distinctive) from a colleague who's a crustacean specialist.